A Trio of Homemade Gifts and Treats for My Daughters

Surprising family members with little treats and gifts is a source of fun for me. I thought I'd share what I made each day of the past weekend for my daughters (in celebration of their birth month), using ingredients that I had on hand.

On Friday I made these little apple pies for my daughters. I used the last of the homegrown apples combined with some dried apples that I rehydrated before combining with spices, sugar, a splash of lemon juice, and flour to thicken. I had saved some mini pie tins from commercial tiny pies a while ago. Perfect size. My daughters loved these, in part because little versions of bigger things are always cute, but also they said these were delicious.

On Saturday I was brainstorming non-food items that I could make. I came up with some fizzy bath salts. I used Epsom salt, baking soda, citric acid, food coloring gel, lavender essential oil, and vanilla fragrance oil. The combination of baking soda and citric acid is what causes the mix to fizz when exposed to water. These cute, almost-matching little jars were found at a free pile last summer. And I made a ribbon out of a scrap of floral purple and lavender fabric, tying tiny sprigs of lavender around the necks of the jars. I think these turned out really pretty. My daughters were both surprised and delighted to receive these on Saturday.

On Sunday I used the other half of the pie pastry (from the mini apple pies) to do homemade raspberry Pop-Tarts. My daughters said these were the best Pop-Tarts they'd ever had. Of course, I don't buy Pop-Tarts very often, so not a lot they can compare the homemade version to. But still, they really enjoyed having these for breakfast. I'll be making these again sometime.

I pressed the dough into a narrow rectangle then rolled it out, trying to get a finished rectangle that was twice as long as it was wide. Once rolled out, I cut the piece in half and squared both pieces by cutting off excess. The Pop-Tarts only used about 1 tablespoon of jam each. I moistened the edges with water, folded the pastry over diagonally, and sealed the edges by pressing the cut sides with a fork. After slashing the tops, I baked them at 400F for 10 minutes, placed small triangles of foil over the narrow points, then reduced the heat to 350F and baked for almost 10 additional minutes, watching carefully so as not to burn them.

I've had a lot of fun with these surprises. My daughters' birthday is later this week, so I only have a couple more surprises to put together.

I hope you had a lovely weekend!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early March

So, here we are, the time in the season when I'm both scrounging in the freezer for remnant from last summer's garden and using up canned goods that I bought in fall. There's not a whole lot in the garden to harvest just yet. But what I can find, I use. Almost all of our meals were cooked at home this past week. My husband received a free lunch for a work Zoom meeting one day. The way they work it is they send him a voucher to use to have something delivered. He chose Taco Bell. The rest of us ate all of our meals cooked at home. When you eat your own cooking for long enough, you really do come to prefer it. I've reached the point where I'd really rather eat home-cooked meals than anything else. It helps tremendously that the other family members take a night per week, so I don't have to cook every night. 

My two favorite meals this week happen to be the two meals that I remembered to take pictures of. The pot roast dinner was so delicious. And of course, pizza is always a favorite for me.

Here's what we ate this week:

Friday

homemade pepperoni pizza, fig-applesauce, sautéed turnip greens and onions

I made a triple batch of pizza dough on Friday and froze two portions. To use, I thaw on the counter then press onto the baking sheet and allow to rise. Works great and I can throw together a pizza with less work on two of the three days. The fig-applesauce is more of my sweet, canned green (unripe) figs pureed (smoothie blender to the rescue) with some applesauce, ginger and cinnamon. 

Saturday
homemade Mexican -- oven-fried tortilla strips, refried beans/salsa/cheese, carrot sticks, radish green and watercress salad

My husband made the Mexican this night. I buy large bags of corn tortillas, keep in the fridge, and use them over a two to three -month period. My husband made chips by brushing with oil and baking until crisp. I cook large pots of pinto beans and freeze the cooked beans in 1-qt containers for easy refritos with the help of a potato masher and some seasonings. Again more garden greens for a salad. We're able to have garden greens (indoor and outdoor ones) 4 or 5 days per week now, although we're currently limited to radish, watercress, turnip greens, and kale.

Sunday
lentil and vegetable soup, cheese biscuits -- easy dinner for a Sunday evening.

Monday
pot roast and gravy, steamed carrots, brown rice, radish green and watercress salad, vanilla-rhubarb sauce

It had been a while since I'd cooked some beef. I found a small roast in the freezer and pot roasted it with lots of gravy, some onions, a bit of tomato paste, and dried garden herbs. It was delicious! I poured the gravy over the carrots, meat, and rice. I have just a small amount of rhubarb left in the freezer from last summer. Our garden rhubarb is about 1 month away from use. Time to use up all of the frozen stuff.

Tuesday
beef and vegetable soup (using leftover pot roast & gravy plus radish greens, canned carrots canned green beans, canned tomatoes, onions, garlic), scratch cornbread, rice pudding topped with raspberry jam

The soup was easy to make as well as tasty on a cold evening. I had about 1 cup of cooked rice leftover from the previous night. I baked a rice pudding (egg, milk, sugar, rice, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon) in the oven with the cornbread. There was just enough for 4 servings. I topped each serving with a generous spoonful of homemade raspberry jam (last summer's garden berries).

Wednesday
tuna salad on bed of watercress, crackers, carrot sticks, tomato-macaroni-cheese bake

One of my daughters made dinner for us this night. We needed to have some tuna in our menus, so I suggested this to her. She's not a fan of tuna casserole, but does like tuna salad. So I picked some watercress to put scoops of the tuna. We both agreed that the dinner needed some more "heft," so she also made a tomato-mac-cheese bake.

Thursday
hummus, freshly-baked French bread, radish green and red cabbage salad, carrot sticks, no-bake cookies

My other daughter made dinner this night. She loves making hummus, so I pulled a qt of cooked garbanzo beans out of the freezer for her. She also used lots of the frozen chives we still need to use up. (The chives in the garden are coming up now.) The no-bake cookies were my baked treat for this week. I don't know if there are variations on no-bake cookies. I made the butter-milk-sugar-cocoa powder-peanut butter-oats-vanilla ones. Always a hit! I hadn't made these in years. My family was pleased.

Breakfasts for the week included: homemade cinnamon rolls, toast, crockpot Cream of Wheat, crockpot steel cut oats, yogurt, orange juice, apples, bananas, raisins, blueberry muffins, eggs

One evening last week, I made a batch of roll dough and made overnight cinnamon rolls. Basically, I set the rolls in the pan, cover, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, whoever gets up first pulls them out of the fridge and they rise enough to bake in about an hour to an hour and a half. Fresh-baked rolls in the morning. The leftovers made great snacks all week. I use my crockpot for both steel cut oats and Cream of Wheat for easy hot breakfasts. Despite having cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins and hot cereal available, some family members still prefer a traditional breakfast of eggs and toast. So that's always available, but they have to make it themselves.

Lunches and snacks included: several soups made with the smoothie blender -- tomato soup (using canned tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, seasonings pureed), carrot soup (canned carrots, chicken stock, onion powder, seasonings), broccoli soup (frozen broccoli, chicken stock, onion powder), various leftovers, toast, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, apples, oranges, eggs, carrots, celery, cabbage, radishes, raisins, bananas, canned pineapple, popcorn, scratch brownies, cinnamon rolls, no-bake cookies, saltine crackers

So, that's what we ate this week. What was on your menu?